The present invention relates to an apparatus for controlling the flow of articles from an upstream delivery station to a downstream receiving station; and more particularly to an apparatus wherein articles can be accumulated between an upstream delivery station and a downstream receiving station, and fed to the downstream receiving station in a first in first out (FIFO) sequence.
Heretofore, accumulators have been utilized between an upstream delivery station and a downstream receiving station to accumulate articles when the capacity of the downstream receiving station is either shut down or run at a speed wherein it cannot handle the number of articles being fed by the upstream delivery station. One particular accumulator is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,018,325. One problem with such accumulators is that the last article fed into the accumulator is the first article fed out of the accumulator and, as a result, it is difficult to keep track of the batch from which a particular article came from, and the sequence in which the articles are fed from the upstream delivery station.
Attempts have been made to produce accumulators wherein the first in is the first out article as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,513,858.
The present invention is particularly adapted for use wherein an upstream delivery station may be a filling station for placing contents into a package and feeding them to a downstream receiving station wherein the package is placed in boxes. It of course can be used in many different industries wherein there is a need to control the rate of flow of articles between an upstream delivery station and a downstream receiving station.
One of the objects of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for controlling the flow of articles from an upstream delivery station to a downstream receiving station and for temporarily storing the articles there between and feeding the first article stored therein out first (FIFO) in a controlled flow to minimize damage from pressure or wear not only inside, but on entry and at next machine.
Another important object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for accumulating articles wherein there is a minimum of contact between the articles in the accumulator. This minimizes damage to labels and printed material carried on the outside of the article or package or to the article itself.
Still another important object of the present invention is to provide an article storage accumulator which permits a large number of articles to be stored in a relatively small amount of floor space, thus reducing the distance between an upstream delivery station and a downstream receiving station.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an accumulator which operates automatically responsive to the requirements of a downstream receiving station to store articles temporarily prior to delivering the articles to the downstream receiving station in a first in first out (FIFO) sequence.
It is another object of the present invention to decrease the potential for damage or breakage as well as jamming or wedging of items to be accumulated because of the manner in which the articles are stored on a moving conveyor.
It is another important object of the present invention to provide an effective and reliable accumulator which can be readily modified for accumulating articles of different sizes and configurations.
Still another important object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for accumulating articles in a vertically stacked arrangement on a moving conveyor system constructed in the form of a vertically extending spiral.
Still another important object of the present invention is to provide an accumulator wherein articles are temporarily stored on a moving conveyor which permits the loading and unloading of the moving conveyor responsive to the capacity of a downstream receiving station.
Another important object of the present invention is to provide an accumulator which utilizes an infeed and outfeed conveyor for temporarily storing articles at a rate depending on the relative speed of travel of the infeed conveyor and the outfeed conveyor.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an effective and reliable apparatus for controlling the flow of articles from an upstream delivery station to an downstream receiving station at a relatively high speed.
Another object also is to make a more responsive apparatus thereby minimizing the need for additional conveyors.
The above objects are accomplished by an apparatus that controls the flow of articles being transported on a main conveyor from an upstream delivery station to a downstream receiving station according to the capacity of the downstream receiving station. The apparatus includes an endless infeed conveyor and endless outfeed conveyor. A support structure supports the infeed conveyor and the outfeed conveyor where a substantial portion of the run of the conveyors are parallel to each other providing a space therebetween. A track is carried by the support structure. The track extends along the parallel run of the infeed and outfeed conveyors. A transport member is carried by the track in the space provided between the infeed and outfeed conveyors for movement along the length of the infeed and outfeed conveyors.
An infeed drive mechanism drives the infeed conveyor in one direction, and an outfeed drive mechanism drives the outfeed conveyor in a second direction. A deflective plate or any other suitable mechanism is used for transferring the articles from a main conveyor onto the infeed conveyor. A rotatable member is carried by the transport member. There is a driving coupling provided between the infeed conveyor and the rotatable member through which the infeed conveyor rotates the rotatable member. There is also a driving coupling provided between the rotatable member and the outfeed conveyor for rotating the rotatable member and causing the transport member to move along the guide track in a direction depending upon the relative speed of travel of the infeed and outfeed conveyors. An article transfer member is carried by the transport member for transferring articles from the infeed conveyor to a position along the outfeed conveyor as the transport member moves along the guide track.
The accomplishment of the objects discussed above will become readily apparent from the following description of various embodiments of the present invention.